President Haider Farman Shares Ideas to Develop and Grow Cricket in Kuwait

Kuwait Cricket (KC) the official governing body for the game of cricket in Kuwait held its Annual General Meeting & Banquet for the year 2016 in Divvan ballroom, Kuwait City on 27th December 2016. KC is a full member of ACC, an associate member of ICC and is also affiliated to Kuwait Olympic committee.

Kuwait Cricket is responsible for development of the game through its extensive domestic infrastructure spread across grass roots to veterans, selection of teams for international events under ICC & ACC, match officials courses, coaching courses as well as hosting international events to keep the flag of Kuwait flying high in regional and international arena apart from many other successful development programs.

Haider Farman, the President of Kuwait Cricket gave a warm welcome to the audience as the host of the event. The annual meet commenced with the recitation of the Holy Quran followed by the welcome address by the President. In his speech , Haider Farman appreciated and thanked the executive council of KC and the entire cricketing fraternity who are working tirelessly for the betterment of Cricket in Kuwait and was optimistic about the future of Kuwait Cricket. He went on to say that with the cricketing facilities, live scoring technology, quality umpires and current management, KC can attract even more number of teams to take part in KC tournaments and events. He also shared his vision of taking Kuwait to the next level and compete with the likes of Oman, UAE and Nepal in terms of performances. He paid respect to Late Yousuf Bash, Anjum Raza and Riaz Chaudhry and appreciated their sincere efforts towards the development of the game in their lifetime.

The President introduced the newly elected executive council Chairman Mahmoud Bastaki. During his speech, Bastaki stated that its a pleasure for him to accept the Chairmanship of KC council knowing the responsibilities it brings. He promised that he would use all his experience and Cricketing knowledge to successfully run the council. Bastaki emphasized the importance of being professional, importance of unity in brining Kuwait to the top level as a cricketing nation. He pointed out that each individual should work towards the same goal to bring Kuwait to the top. He promised that the selection for Kuwait international team will be done in a most professional and honest way.

The chairman highlighted the missing board and council members due to prior unavoidable commitments starting from the Vice President Faisal Al Marzook, General Secretary Emad Al Jassam, Director Domestic & Marketing Sajid Ashraf, Director Junior & Corporate Harshith Vora, Director Technical Sudhakar Shetty, Director Coaching Sameer Desai, Manager Logistics Robert D'souza.

Chairman's address was followed by series of presentations by council members. Iqbal Vanoo, Deputy Chairman, screened a video, which had moments from the past and achievements of Kuwait Cricket as an organization. During his speech he appreciated the hard work of the council members and informed that like any other organization its time for young bloods to take Kuwait cricket forward. Asad Baig, Director General, wished the best, and congratulated all who are working tirelessly for the success. Mehboob Khan, Director of Women’s cricket presented the achievements of Kuwait women cricket team in the recently concluded international T20 cup in the UAE where Kuwait finished 4th. His presentation was followed by felicitation ceremony of the Kuwait Women team where they were presented with certificates by Mahmoud Bastaki, KC Council Chairman with Maryam Omar being the best Batter of the tournament.

In the absence of Director Domestic and Marketing, Sajid Ashraf, his fellow council member, Rishi D Jayan delivered the presentation on his behalf. The domestic presentation stressed upon the recent achievements and milestones of 179 Unique Domestic Cricket Teams, almost 4000 Unique Players including Kuwaiti Nationals, the best web portal for live scoring in the middle east WWW.KUWAIT-CRICKET.COM, 14 cricket grounds: 2 Turf & 12 Cement (spread across the areas of Hateen, Jleeb, Kabd& Sulaibikhat, Sulaibiya Cricket Ground (Turf) – Kuwait Cricket,Doha Entertainment City Cricket Ground (Turf). Sincere thanks and appreciation were rendered to the sponsors notably, IDP as principle sponsor, MGA as title Sponsor, Al Hafiz Company (Print Solution), Logistics Sponsor Kuwait Swedish Cleaning Services. Various Bank League sponsors such as Kuwait Banks Club, Ahli United Bank, National Bank of Kuwait, Boubyan were also appreciated.

Ashraf's presentation also highlighted the significant changes seen in junior tournaments where Director Harshith Vora, is determined to make a positive difference and promote the game amongst the local kids through various campaigns in the future. The efforts of Murali Kutticode, former Director of Juniors were acknowledged by the President during the course of the presentation.

Rishi D jayan, Director of Website & IT, then delivered his presentation that contained innovation and growth in KC's IT operations where the extremely hard working team of 8 people have been the intangible pillars. He briefed on the web portal of Kuwait Cricket and its inbuilt features such as live scoring, live commentary and comparison charts sections etc that are of international standards. The IT Director believes that KC has all the right tools to become the technology leader in the middle east and compete with regional giants and be the top nation.

John Salomon, Director of Match Officials delivered a speech on the match officials numbers and activities including the recently concluded LEVEL “0”course where he appreciated the efforts of instructors Tariq, Farid&Irfan who carried out the program. His presentation was followed by felicitation ceremony where all the level 0 umpires were presented certificates by TareqBeidas, Level “0” course Instructor.

The Annual meet of Kuwait Cricket with all its stakeholders was concluded with a vote of thanks by the President and followed by a scrumptious dinner with hopes and belief of more success of KC in 2017.